The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 eBook

grow old fools. Their age gives them authority,
and nobody contradicts them. In the world, one
cannot help perceiving one is out of fashion.
Women play at cards with women of their own standing,
and censure others between the deals, and thence conclude
themselves Gamaliels. I who see many young men
with better parts than myself, submit with a good
grace, or retreat hither to my castle, where I am
satisfied with what I have done, and am always in good
humour. But I like to have one or two old friends
with me. I do not much invite the juvenile,
who think my castle and me of equal antiquity:
for no wonder, if they supposed George I. lived in
the time of the crusades.

Adieu! my good Sir, and pray let Burnham Wood and
Dunsinane be good neighbours. Yours ever.

(110) Sir John Fenn, who edited the “Original
Letters, written during the Reigns of Henry VI., Edward
iv., Richard iii., and Henry ViI., by various
Persons of rank and consequence, digested in a Chronological
order — with Notes historical and explanatory;”
which were published in four volumes, quarto, between
the years 1787-1789. The letters are principally
by members of the Paston family and others, who were
of great consequence in Norfolk at the time Sir John
who was a native of Norwich, died in 1794.
A fifth volume was published in 1823.- E.

(111) Alluding to his not having answered a letter
from Mr. Cole for nearly a twelvemonth.

Your illness, dear Sir, is the worst excuse you could
make me; and the worse, as you may be well in a night,
if you will, by taking six grains of James’s
Powder. He cannot cure death; but he can most
complaints that are not mortal or chronical.
He could cure you so soon of colds, that he would
cure you of another distemper, to which I doubt you
are a little subject, the fear of them. I hope
you were certain, that illness is a legal plea for
missing induction, or you will have nursed a cough
and hoarseness with too much tenderness, as they certainly
could bear a journey. Never see my face again,
if you are not rector of Burnham. How can you
be so bigoted to Milton? I should have thought
the very name would have prejudiced you against the
place, as the name is all that could approach towards
reconciling me to the fens. I shall be very
glad to see you here, whenever you have resolution
enough to quit your cell. But since Burnham
and the neighbourhood of Windsor and Eton have no
charms for you, can I expect that Strawberry Hill
should have any? Methinks, that when one grows
old, one’s contemporary friends should be our
best amusement: for younger people are soon tired
of us, and our old stories: but I have found
the contrary in some of mine. For your part,
you care for conversing with none but the dead:
for I reckon the unborn, for whom you are writing,
as much dead, as those from whom you collect. .